Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the field of computer touchscreen devices, and more particularly to touchscreen oriented input integrated with enhanced four-corner indexing.
In most mobile devices, such as phones, smartwatches and tablets, data is input using a small virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. The keyboard layout is called QWERTY because it is based on the names of the first six keys appearing on the top left letter row of the traditional keyboard for Latin script. An input method editor (IME) is an operating system component, or another program, that is commonly used to accept data input, such as from keyboard strokes or mouse movements. An IME allows a user to enter characters and symbols not found on the input device. With an IME, a user of a Latin keyboard can input Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean (CJK) characters using the touchscreen of the mobile device. However, since traditional IMEs are designed for full-sized keyboards it is difficult to operate the virtual keyboard of a typical mobile device. Some non-keyboard layout-based input methods (such as hand writing and voice) can be used in mobile devices without the screen size limitation. However, the efficiency and accuracy of such methods are still bottlenecks for CJK graphic characters inputs.
A new touch-device oriented IME that does not rely on a virtual QWERTY keyboard may increase IME efficiency and accuracy, and by eliminating the original IME drawbacks of error introduced by the small QWERTY keyboard and the difficult and time consuming process of entering CJK characters.